World briefs

TRIPOLI, Libya -- A Libyan military spokesman said more than 150 gunmen have attacked an air base in the country's southern desert, killing two government troops.

Saad al-Orfi said the attack early Saturday targeted a military air base about 30 miles north of the city of Sabha. He said the assailants were heavily armed and clashed with government forces stationed at the base.

A colonel and a soldier were killed in the fighting, and two more troops were also wounded.

Al-Orfi identified the assailants as Libyan but said an investigation is under way to determine who they were.

Principal dead, kids hurt in Pakistan grenade attack

KARACHI, Pakistan -- A man armed with a gun and grenades attacked a school in southern Pakistan during a prize distribution ceremony Saturday, killing its principal and wounding six children before fleeing.

Police said the attacker struck as dozens of children were gathered outside at their private school in Karachi to receive the results of their annual exam.

TV showed panicked relatives of the wounded children, who were between the ages of 8 and 10, crying outside the school.

A police officer said the slain principal was a local leader of the Awami National Party. He said the attacker threw two grenades and then opened fire on the principal and children who were standing near him.

Death toll hits 18 in Tanzania building collapse

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania -- At least 18 people were killed when a building collapsed Friday in Tanzania's largest city, Dar es Salaam, and hopes have dimmed of rescuing more survivors, a municipal official said Saturday.

Poor equipment hampered efforts to rescue more than 60 people believed to be trapped under the rubble. At least 17 people, three seriously injured, were pulled out of the debris Friday.

Officials said construction work on the building, on one of the busiest streets in Tanzania's commercial center, was about to be completed and that the structure did not have tenants. Most of the people caught in the collapse of the 12-story building were laborers as well as those passing by.

Rights groups slam British town's under-16 curfew

LONDON -- Civil liberties activists have condemned an English town for imposing a nighttime curfew on all youngsters in a bid to combat rowdy behavior.

Officials in Barnsley, northern England, have barred under-16s from the town center between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless they are accompanied by an adult. Children breaching the curfew will be removed from the area.

The trial curfew runs for six months.

Rights group Liberty said Saturday that the ban is wrong and could face a court challenge.

Nick Pickles, of the group Big Brother Watch, called the measure "a waste of time and resources."